Friends Meeting House, Brant Broughton 3 Meeting House Lane, Brant Broughton, LN5 0SH National Grid Reference: SK 91653 54217 Statement of Significance A timber-framed barn was given to the Quakers in 1701 by Thomas Robinson and almost completely rebuilt in stone to serve as the meeting house. A cottage attached to the south end was later converted to provide a ground floor room with a women's room in a loft above. Some of the external walls were partly rebuilt in brick in the early nineteenth century. The interior appears to be largely unaltered since that time and may incorporate some earlier fittings. Besides the meeting house there is also a late eighteenth century stable building, now converted to a meeting space, and a corrugated- iron carriage shed, now also converted as a meeting space. The complex of buildings and burial ground is of high heritage significance. Evidential value All the buildings on the site contains elements of their original arrangement and construction and overall the buildings are of high evidential value. Historical value A very well-preserved example of an early eighteenth century meeting house with some early nineteenth century alterations. The building has been in continuous use for Quaker worship since 1701 and is closely associated with the local Burtt family. The building is of high historical value. Aesthetic value The stone and brick exterior of the building is very attractive and the interior of the original meeting room still preserves a great deal of its original character. The building is of high aesthetic value. Communal value The meeting house has been in continuous use for worship since 1701 and the facilities are now also used by other local community groups. The buildings has high communal value. Part 1: Core data 1.1 Area Meeting: Lincolnshire 1.2 Property Registration Number: 0026640 1.3 Owner: Area Meeting 1.4 Local Planning Authority: North Kesteven District Council 1.5 Historic England locality: East Midlands 1.6 Civil parish: Brant Broughton and Stragglethorpe 1.7 Listed status: I 1.8 NHLE: 1061898 1.9 Conservation Area: Brant Broughton 1.10 Scheduled Ancient Monument: No 1.11 Heritage at Risk: No 1.12 Date(s): 1701, but incorporating some earlier fabric and with later alterations 1.13 Architect (s): Not established 1.14 Date of visit: 12 February 2016 1.15 Name of report author: Neil Burton 1.16 Name of contact(s) made on site: Andrew James 1.17 Associated buildings and sites: None 1.18 Attached burial ground: Yes 1.19 Information sources: Butler, D.M., The Quaker Meeting Houses of Britain, 1999, vol.1 pp.363-4. Gwatkin, John , Brant Broughton Quaker Meeting House 1701-2001 Stell Christopher, Nonconformist Chapels and Meeting houses in Eastern England, English Heritage, 2002. pp.200-1. Lincolnshire HER number 63028-MLI85956 Local Meeting survey by Andrew James, January 2016. Part 2: The Meeting House & Burial Ground: history, contents, use, setting and designation 2.1. Historical background In 1665 a London Quaker named Thomas Robinson purchased land in Brant Broughton and built a house in the village. He initially attended the meeting at Beckingham, five miles east of Newark, but by 1678 he was holding meetings in his own house. The house was licensed for religious meetings in 1689. In 1701 Robinson gave a timber-framed thatched barn with a cottage attached at the south end for use as a meeting house. The barn was largely rebuilt in stone c1701 but retaining the southern truss next to the cottage. Robinson died in 1709 and was buried at Beckingham. The cottage at Brant Broughton was later converted to provide an additional room on the ground floor with a women's meeting room in the loft above. A timber partition with shuttered openings on both floors was formed in the preserved southern truss of the former barn. Land adjacent to the meeting house was given to Friends by John Scrimshaw in 1727 for use as a burial ground. In 1776 a small brick stable was built on the north side of the meeting house. It appears that the south gable and the west wall of the meeting house above window cill level were rebuilt in brick circa 1800, and it may have been as part of this refurbishment that the thatched roof-covering was replaced in pantiles. Butler notes that the building was 're-fitted' at this time. The meeting has a long association with the local Burtt family, who provided most of its members in the eighteenth, nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries. In the 1950s the stable building was adapted to provide a children's schoolroom and other accommodation. Major repairs to the main building were carried out in 1986 including the relaying of the timber floors. In the early 1990s a late nineteenth or early 20th century open carriage shed with a curving corrugated iron roof standing some way south of the meeting house was converted by the County Council to become a Village Heritage Centre. That use has now ceased and the building is managed by the Local Meeting. In recent years the former Heritage Centre and the stable building have been refurbished and the garden newly laid-out under the supervision of Andrew James, the Area Meeting Property Adviser who is also a member of the Brant Broughton meeting. Fig.1 A plan and perspective view of the meeting house, with an internal view showing the loft and shutters. Butler 1999 vol.1 p.364. 2.2. The building and its principal fittings and fixtures The meeting house building is rectangular on plan with a pitched roof, originally thatched but now covered in pantiles. At the north end is a later stable building set at right angles. The main east front is of coursed Ancaster stone. Towards the northern end are two timber cross windows of early eighteenth century pattern with timber lintels and timber external shutters. Below the northern window is a mounting block of red brick with stone capping. Towards the southern end of the front are two doorways with timber lintels and early nineteenth century panelled doors. Over the right hand door is a circular stone plaque with the letters RTS (for Thomas and Sarah Robinson) and the date 1701. The stone facing of the southern part of the wall is of better quality than the northern part and may represent the later rebuilding or re- facing of the original cottage. The south end wall has a stone base, with upper parts of red brick laid in Flemish bond with a square stone sundial of uncertain date. The long rear (west) wall is of coursed stone below with red brick above, except at the north end where the stone is continued up to the eaves. In this stonework is a single timber cross-window with a wooden lintel. In the brick part of the wall is a single segment-headed window of a different pattern three lights, with a small dormer in the roof slope above. The former stable building attached to the north end of the meeting house is of red brick laid in a mixture of Flemish and garden wall bond, with a tiled roof which is hipped on the street elevation. In the west wall is a wide opening, with a timber door. The interior of the meeting house is divided by a timber screen, set between the uprights of a timber truss, which is probably the original south end truss of the timber-framed barn (Stell). The main meeting room has a floor of narrow pine boards, a tall dado of painted timber panelling and plain-plastered walls and ceiling with the tie-beams exposed. At the north end is a stand with perimeter seating and a fixed bench of painted timber in front. The full-height timber screen at the south end is also of painted timber panelling with shutters to both the lower and upper levels. The room below the gallery has a panelled dado of painted timber with perimeter benches and a fireplace with a later eighteenth century cast iron hob grate. A stair with winders in the south east corner leads to the gallery above, which is also heated. The main internal space in the stable building has recently been refurbished and the collar and tie-beam roof trusses exposed. The former carriage shed to the south of the meeting house was originally an open shelter and has cast-iron columns supporting a segmental roof covered with corrugated iron. Under the roof is now a modern timber 'pod' built in the 1990s to house a local heritage centre. 2.3. Loose furnishings The meeting house contains a number of open-backed benches, some with solid ends and some with open ends and unusual shaped arms. All are painted white. Stell dates them to the early nineteenth century, but it is very possible that the benches with solid ends are original. 2.4. Attached burial ground (if any) The burial ground to the south and west of the meeting house apparently dates originally from 1727 and is still in use. It appears to have been enlarged several times and is made up of several separate spaces; a red brick wall between the main burial ground and what is now the Peace Garden behind the meeting house is dated 1860. Part of the space has recently been laid out as a Quiet Garden with ornamental grasses and a pattern of paving stones which will gradually be replaced by inscribed stones to commemorate interments. 2.5. The meeting house in its wider setting Brant Broughton is a very attractive small village with a highly important mediaeval parish church.